Moreover, given that the definition of a statistical model provided in section  does not say much about the nature of the relationship between a statistical model and its target phenomenon observed in the physical universe, we would like to point out here that the modeling perspective we adopt is founded on the premise that a statistical model is a phenomenological model of reality describing relationships among observed variables in a mathematical formalism that is not derived from first principles [1]}. We consider a model phenomenological in the Kantian sense [2]} in which the word phenomenon denotes an empirical object that is known through the senses and whose mental representation is constructed by experience. The phenomenon is contrasted with the noumenon, the “thing-in-itself” that is not directly knowable by the senses but which can be known by the mind in the form of a theoretical construct. For example, whereas the electromagnetic force is a theoretical construct arrived at from first principles and provides a causal explanation to empirical observations (e.g. effects of magnetic and electric fields), the empirical observations themselves constitute experienced phenomenon whose correlative nature can provide nothing more than evidence for noumenal knowledge.
